TIME WARNER ALL THE BEST (& WORST)

Today, the transition to Time Warner's All The Best package (in which you receive cable, internet and phone for one "low" price) was finally completed. It took an entire month from the time they first came to install the package to when everything finally started to work right.

There were so many issues, I can't say I would ever recommend switching over. I knew I had to expect something unexpected would happen when the crew first arrived. The tech realized the wires were not properly grounded to the electric panel. So he ordered a construction crew to properly ground the cable wire.

When the crew came a week and a half later, they had to dig up a little tunnel all the way to the electric panel. But in order for the cable to continue working, he had to rig-up a temporary cable line that hung on top of the roof.

When the next tech came in to re-wire, I told him that I wanted the wires only to run within the walls. He said he couldn't do it because he didn't know how and that they were not allowed to. So I rescheduled another appointment to wait for a standard rewiring to take place.

I waited and waited and discovered that no one showed up. I didn't even receive a phone call! So it turns out they had rescheduled the appointment without ever telling me. However, I did discover a phone message later that day and realized that they did in fact call. Nevertheless, I was issued a credit for the tech not showing up (it's an on-time guarantee). This guarantee haunted me later since I received four additional credit because of techs not showing up on time.

So the next crew that came out wasn't the original tech I requested. It was a contractor who ended up wiring some lines around the house. They had to go through the attic and down the side of the house. I'd rather not have that, but until we get a contractor to make the house cable ready with wires within the walls of the home, there wasn't anything I could do.

The next issue was the phone service. They could only get one phone to work because there was something wrong with the other phone lines within the house. So another guy who specializes in phone systems had to go into the attic and rewire some things. Unfortunately, he couldn't get the phone system to work with our Brinks alarm system.

It was one issue after another. So I had to call Brinks in to have them re-wire the system so that it would be compatible with Time Warner's VoIP phone service. That was a charge that I hated to pay, but what can you do? So I asked Time Warner if they could give me a credit so it would off-set the charge that Brinks was charging.

Throughout this entire ordeal, our cable service went in and out. Several channels just didn't get a signal or were scrambled and tiled. After changing out some cables and replacing the splitter for the second time (one that provided one split with a higher signal than the other one), it finally all came together.

Was it worth it? If I did a purely cost analysis, it will probably save money after a year. But in terms of inconvenience and frustration, I can't say it was worth it. Only time will tell.